DONETSK, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - A political bloc in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Region is gathering volunteers for protests against the Sea Breeze 2007 exercises, to be held jointly with NATO.
"We are gathering people for protest actions against the NATO exercises. Unfortunately, these exercises have been legalized. There are many people willing to go to Nikolayev to speak against NATO," an official from the Natalya Vitrenko bloc said.
The regular joint exercises Sea Breeze 2007 are to be held July 9-22 in waters off the Odessa seaport. Last year, similar exercises were canceled due to protest actions.
Legislators in the southern Crimea region declared the peninsula a NATO-free zone after a U.S. cargo ship, the Advantage, called at the Black Sea port of Feodosia May 27, 2006 ahead of Sea Breeze 2006, sparking mass protests in the largely Russian-speaking area.
